Elixired: Udaipur in photographs

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Udaipur in photographs

It was an all-girls trip to Udaipur. We were excited, with our spirits touching the sky. We had our own reasons to be thrilled with the idea of this trip. For last two years Udaipur had become my must visit destination. After looking at photographs on my cousins’ and on my uncles Facebook wall and reading about city of lakes and palaces I became determined. We took over night train from Delhi. Being in an all-girls group and loud laugh-errs we grabbed the attention of many fellow passengers. One old aged man came from his seat to our adda, smiled and said;" Listening to your laughs I was thinking today’s world still has such joyous hearts..." we laughed out again...

We checked in Hotel Amantra (near Saheliyon ki Bari)- which was a comfortable place with good service and decently priced. On the day of our arrival we checked with two cab providing entities. First one was Rajasthan tourism's office at the railway station. Another one was our hotel's cab providers. We hired the latter one as it had a better deal. As per our homework we jotted down our list of must visit places.

On day one we visited Chetak memorial which wasn’t very great and can be skipped. After it we visited Vintage car museum. It is a place for car lovers, and if one loves to relish over the classic car models, there is a good variety here. For the non-interested folks there is a restaurant nearby where one can enjoy a thali- meal. After museum, we decided to visit the famous City Palace- one of the most visited tourist destination in Udaipur. It has the fusion of Mughal and Rajasthani styles of architecture and is situated on the banks of Lake Pichola.

From City Palace one can have a panoramic view of the city. There are small shops inside the complex. Though according to locals those shops are over priced and one can get things at cheaper rates from outside market.

From the palace we had a view of Lake Pichola and buildings like Jag Mandir and Lake Palace on it. If you are in Udaipur- City Palace is a must visit destination.

We went Karni Mata temple next through a rope-way. Situated on a higher altitude, the place provided a handsome view of Udaipur City lying below. We decided to wait there for sunset.

From above we could see Dhudhtalai (a small lake near Lake Pichola). It is a popular sunset point with fountains in the middle of the lake.

A view of lake Pichola from Karni mata temple just before Sunset.

After the sunset the City turned brighter in the night with terrific lighting that made it look more heavenly.

We decided to go for boating in Lake Pichola and look around at beautifully lighted Lake Palace, City Palace and Jag Mandir with their reflections in the lake.

After that our cab driver took us to Rajasthan Emporium and then to Raaj-Bagh besides Fateh Sagar Lake. The food and service was not very nice but ambiance was good.

Next day we planned for Kumbhalgarh fort and Ranakpur Jain temple which are on outskirts of Udaipur. If you love visiting old forts, enjoy their architecture and love to trek, Kumbhalgarh fort is for you. There small eating joints around the fort for lunch, though food wasn’t very awesome but edible. After visiting the fort we started for Ranakpur temple, a must visit for every person in or around Udaipur. The architecture of this temple is enthralling. Beautiful sculptures are sculpted in the walls and pillars around.

After reaching back to Udaipur our cab left us near Bagore ki Haveli. We enjoyed variety of Rajasthani dance performances for an hour there. The show starts at 7 in the evening and ends at 8.

After enjoying it we went to one of the famous restaurant Ambrai which is exactly opposite to City Palace. Sitting by the lake side in candle light and looking at beautifully lighted city Palace was a delightful experience. If one is in Udaipur one should not miss this view during evening.

Our third day was a bit relaxed. We decided to walk/jog around Fateh Sagar to see the sun rise early morning at 5. The lake was approx. 1.5 to 2 kms away from our hotel. We walked, enjoyed the greenery and morning of Udaipur to the lake. There are better sunrise points, for which one needs to hire cab in advance as local transports are not available before 6 am. After coming back we enjoyed our complimentary buffet for breakfast.

We got ready and visited Jagdish temple. One of the very famous temple of Udaipur.

Jagdish Temple

After visiting temple it was the time for some local shopping for us.. Udaipur has some leather work wallets, bags and small sling bags which had multicolored embroideries over them. Also there were handmade diaries with traditional cloth cover.

One not to be missed food joint was Nataraj where they offer unlimited thali with too many options. The place doesn't offer very good ambience and is a bit noisy but nothing can beat a plate full of sumptuous and economical meal- another must visit place.